Effect of dialyzate fractions of spinach on growth of human-derived cells.

Aqueous dialyzate of spinach was separated by Sephadex G-100, G-25 gel-filtrations and DEAE-cellulose ion exchange chromatography, and the effects of the fractions on growth of human-derived normal and cancer cell lines were studied. One of the fractions (SPW2) from a Sephadex G-100 gel-filtration of dialyzate promoted growth of a hybridoma cell line (HB4C5). Sephadex G-25 gel filtration of the SPW2 fraction produced four main fractions; SPW2-1, SPW2-2, SPW2-3 and SPW2-4. Among them, the SPW2-1, SPW2-3 and SPW2-4 fractions promoted the growth of a histiocytic lymphoma cell line (U-937) and hybridoma cell lines (HB4C5 and SI102). Both SPW2-3 and SPW2-4 fractions inhibited the growth of a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The SPW2-3 fraction, especially, was found to inhibit growth of cancer cell lines such as MCF-7, a differentiated hepatoma (HuH-7), a lung adenocarcinoma (PC-8), a lung squamous carcinoma (QG-56), and a lung anaplastic carcinoma (QG-90) more preferentially than that of normal cell lines. It was also found that a constituent of the SPW2-3 fraction caused the morphological alteration of U-937 cells in serum-free medium.